Darryl Worley looked out into the audience about halfway through his headlining show at last year's KIIM Country Music Festival and had an epiphany.
The audience was leaving. There were pockets of empty seats. It was distressing.
"Man, this is moving slow enough that these people are packing up their stuff and going home," the 6-foot-6 neotraditional country singer recalled thinking. "I told my manager after I got back, things are gonna change for me."
His show needed a shove, the kind that moves it from blah to bombastic. So Worley headed back into the studio with his new label, Neal McCoy's Texas-based 903 Music, and recorded an album that is in many ways a reintroduction. The man who has built a reputation for being a die-hard traditionalist is moving to the genre's edgier side.
His 903 debut, which he hopes to wrap up this week, has "a little bit of that Muscle Shoals rock, R&B" to it, Worley said in a cell-phone call from his tour bus on Monday.
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"I just wanted to do something a lot lighter this time, a little more fun. It's really upbeat, real groovin' stuff. There's some stuff in there that's reminiscent of (Lynyrd) Skynyrd," he said.
Gone are the fiddle and steel guitar that have driven Worley's traditional-leaning twang, replaced by Southern-accented guitar that sets the album's tone. The sassy, spirited first single, "Nothin' But a Love Thang," has a laid-back groove tickled with dynamic rocking guitar that is infectious.
Chances are when he plays it at the Maverick King of Clubs Wednesday, Worley won't see any fans heading for the door.
"We're having more fun out on the road doing our live show than we ever have," he said. "It's a new attitude, new energy and new sound.
"We just needed to adjust the tempo of the show and put it in another zone. It's there now." x
Quick Take
Darryl Worley in concert
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The Maverick King of Clubs, 6622 E. Tanque Verde Road
Cost: $24 through the club, 298-0430
